“SANTA! I KNOW HIM!”
Our favorite jolly guy in the big red suit is coming back to town. To help bring the Christmas cheer into your classroom, I have compiled a list of my favorite Santa Claus books as well as a few activities to go along with them:
Each link below will take you to an ad free YouTube version of the stories being read aloud:
3. The Day Santa Stopped Believing in Harold
8. The Year Without a Santa Claus
Each of these Santa stories does a great job reviewing important skills you’ve worked on all year all while providing opportunity for fun activities for your students to complete. If you haven’t read “How Santa Got His Job”, it’s a sweet story about the many jobs Santa tried before finding his perfect fit. The author, Stephen Krensky, gives the reader clear problems for each job Santa tried so desperately at , but failed. Your students will also enjoy pointing out how each job Santa tries move him closer and closer to the job he has today.
How Santa Got His Job Activities
There are so many ways to use this book in your classroom! Here are some activities to use with the book “How Santa Got His Job “.
Identifying the Problem with Each Job
Students will recall the problem Santa faced with each job he had. There are two options for this activity.
- Students must write the problem to match each job.
- The problems are all given and students must draw a line from each job to it’s problem.
Reindeer/Elf/Santa’s Workshop Job Applications Writing Activity
Have your students fill out these job applications and tell why they should be chosen for the job. Students are then able to use the questions they’ve answered and turn them into an opinion essay!
Sequencing Activity
Have your students cut out and order these sequence cards to show the order the events happened in the story. This is a great way to differentiate for students who may struggle to retell the story on their own.
You can find these actives in my TPT store by clicking HERE!
Whatever Santa story you decide to read, here are some FREE summarizing activities for you to use with your students! These activities are both Google Slides compatible and printable. If you’re in the classroom, using the Google Slides version is a great way to incorporate technology into your class time.
One of the activities included in this FREE resource is a S.W.B.S.T. summarizing sheet.. This strategy is AWESOME to use when students want to retell every.detail.of.the.story. When students learn this strategy, they can give a brief, short description of the story they read.
If you’re not familiar with the S.W.B.S.T. strategy, it goes like this:
Somebody: Who is the main character?
Wanted: What did the main character want?
But: What was the problem?
So: How was the problem solved?
Then: What happened at the end of the story?
Your students can practice identifying Beginning, Middle and End of a story with the cute retelling page included in this resource. Each of the Santa stories listed above would fit perfectly with a lesson on BME. You can model finding the parts of one story during a whole group lesson and then have students complete the activity with partners or on their own after you’ve read a second story.
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